"Food for me was a connecting link to my grandmother, to my childhood, to my past. And what I found out is that for everybody, food is a connector to their roots, to their past in different ways. It gives you security; it gives you a profile of who you are, where you come from." - Lidia Matticchio Bastianich

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Monday, October 6, 2008

KhaparoLi or KhaparPoLi is a Malvani sweet delicacy. It is made during Navratri at my home. I came to know the origin of this name "KhaparPoLi" recently. My mom told me that it is called "khaparoli" because traditionally it is fried on a terracotta frying pan which is called "Khapar". I looked at the terracotta pan that I picked during my recent trip, but I was not sure if I will be able to use it since it has lots of holes. I think I will use it for roasting bhakri instead.

1. Soak wheat grains separately in water. Soak all the remaining grains, daal and beans along with cumin and methi seeds in enough water. They need to be soaked at least 8 - 10 hours. Check in between to make sure that all the grains are submerged in the water.

2. Next morning, drain & grind all of them to a smooth paste adding water or coconut water. Wash thick poha and add to the mixture and again grind it to make a smooth paste.

3. Take out the ground mixture in a big pot. Cover and keep it in a warm place for fermenting. It will take anywhere between 6 - 8 hours depending on the weather.

4. Now add some salt. You may add some water to make the pancake batter or oothapam batter consistency.

5. Grease a small pan. Pour a ladle of batter. Cover with a lid. Let it fry till brown spots appear. Then flip and cook on the other side for a minute or two.

6. Serve warm KhaparpoLi with coconut syrup or Ras.

Notes -

1. For the traditional decadence, follow these steps. Take a big, deep plate like paraat. Pour half of coconut syrup. As soon as the khaproLi is ready, place it in the plate. Let it soak in the coconut syrup. When next khaproLi is ready, keep the previous one in a serving plate. Follow this procedure till you get a neat stack of soaked KhaproLis ready. You may need to add more coconut syrup if needed.

2. Instead of the above festive touch, you can just serve this pancake with the coconut syrup in a ramekin.

3. Since I am not too fond of sweets, I serve Khaproli with spicy accompaniments as well. They go especially well with simple chutney, Kalya Vatanyachi Amti, or any spicy curry of your choice.

4. You can chop some onions, cilantro, green chilies and mix in a batter to make spicy pancakes as well.

5. If you can't find fresh coconut water for grinding the batter, use plain water. I found coconut water at the whole foods by brand "One" from Brazil with only one ingredient "natural coconut water".

6. You can refrigerate the leftover batter.

7. These pancakes are very soft and porous. Make sure that the batter is well fermented.